Creation of Minnewanka Landing
When the Rocky Mountains Parks Act came into effect, the Banff area became a tourist destination for all kinds of wealthy and affluent people – the kind of people that wouldn’t want to live alongside coal miners or railway workers. Alas, Minnewanka Landing was born. Minnewanka Landing was playground for the wealthy constructed just upstream of the Bankhead townsite on the shores of Lake Minnewanka.
Growth of Minnewanka Landing
In 1886, Willoughby John Astley, and W. H. Desbrowne founded the town through the construction of the Beach House Hotel using the abundance of logs found throughout the area. Willoughby’s family took up residence with him at the hotel an assisted in managing it. Impressed by his work, the Canadian Pacific Railway contracted Willoughby in 1890 to construct a similar building in Laggan (Lake Louise) which he would end up managing. In the years following, Minnewanka Landing would grow because of wealthy tourists arriving from Calgary. Politicians, doctors, lords and captains grazed the shores of Minnewanka Landing and by the early 1900s, the town was larger in size than Banff[2].
The residents and tourists of Lake Minnewanka took a liking to fishing the abundant waters. The hotel became well known among affluent visitors for its unique cuisine largely consisting of the day’s catches. Seeing the success of Minnewanka Landing – other local entrepreneurs built hotels and accommodations along the shores of Lake Minnewanka and the town began to boom. A wharf was constructed to allow greater access of the lake and the shorelines were improved by constructing a small log dam in 1895. This would attract larger boats and more tourists to Minnewanka Landing[2].
Partial Flooding of Minnewanka Landing (1912)
In 1910, a hydro-electricity dam was completed downstream near the Horseshoe Falls on the Bow River by the Calgary Power Company in order to power the increasingly industrial city of Calgary. They found that the dam was not producing enough electricity to meet demand and so they decided to construct yet another dam nearby at Seebe in 1911[2].
In 1912, a storage dam was constructed which raised the water level of Lake Minnewanka and partially flooded the town[1]. The water level of Lake Minnewanka increase by 12 feet which flooded almost 1000 acres of land alongside the shorelines[2].
Most of the homes were successfully relocated to higher ground prior to filling of the lake. It was decided that the hotel had to be burned to the ground before being flooded however due to its difficulty to move[2].
Destruction of Minnewanka Landing
In the 1940, Calgary was needing an improved power generation source because of its massive growth and the government imposed the infamous War Measures Act giving themselves sweeping jurisdiction. Ordinarily, construction of this extent and size would be denied in a National Park but with this new power, the federal government began the construction of the second dam that still exists today[2].
When the new dam was completed in 1941, the lake rose an additional 85 feet from the 1912 water levels, completely covering the town or Minnewanka Landing in cold mountain water. The drastic increase in water level created a ton of power for the city of Calgary – at the expense of an entire town[1]. Minnewanka Landing was never rebuilt on the new shoreline.
References:
[1] Minnewanka – Alberta, Canada Ghost Town. (n.d.). http://www.ghosttowns.com. Retrieved January 30, 2023, from https://www.ghosttowns.com/canada/alberta/minnewanka.html
[2] Whyte Museum. (2019a, January 17). The Beach House Hotel: Lake Minnewanka’s First Hotel. The Beach House Hotel. http://whytemuseum.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-beach-house-hotel-lake-minnewankas.html